Shisui Enters the Water
by Esellyn
Summary: Shisui expected to die when he fell off that cliff. Instead, the Naka river caught him, and dare I say it, no matter how cliche, his life was changed forever.
1. Chapter 1

Shisui had always loved the water. Even though he's an Uchiha, born and raised with fire in his veins, he loved the consistency of water. Perhaps it was a coping method, but he loved sitting at the edge of streams and rivers, and the two times he went to the Kiri border, his teammates had some difficulty dragging him away from staring at the ocean waves. He had no drawing talent, but he tried sometimes. When he didn't have a mission, when his parents didn't need him, whenever he had a moment to himself. He'd find a river and stare into the water for as long as he could. Multiple mission partners had decided to go looking for him because he wasn't early, but could never find him in time. He was always on time though.

As he fell he mourned he would never again see the water. Danzo had poisoned him, taken one of his eyes. Shisui had given the other to Itachi, but now he mourned being unable to see the water one last time. At least he'd feel the water one last time, he had loved the water, and now he would die in it.

He didn't hit the water, well not in the way he'd expected. He felt his fall slow, the river water reaching up, slowing his fall, and then enveloping him as he plunged into the cold water.

"Oh, this will not do," a soft voice murmured, a little regretfully. He tried to locate the voice, but he was underwater and could hear very little. It almost sounded familiar, his hazy brain decided.

His wounds began to sting, the multiple slight cuts from kunai and shuriken beginning to feel like a sped-up version of a medic-nin's jutsu, the sides of the larger wounds drawing close before knitting together. His eyes stung worse than any of the cuts, an odd feeling of swelling that he knew normally accompanied black eyes.

His body finally went numb from the cold, and he almost sighed in relief. But he didn't because he was underwater, and that would waste oxygen. Oddly enough, he wasn't running out of oxygen, and oh kami was that the feeling of breathing? Why did it feel like he was breathing? He stopped breathing already! It made no sense.

He must be dead already, right? People couldn't breathe underwater, that was not how biology worked! Oh gosh, he was delirious. Now that he thought about it, he was warm now, not numb, but warm.

His legs stopped functioning when he told them to, and it almost felt like they were binding together, moving as one limb instead of two. Kami, dying was weird. And oh gosh did his skin tingle, like his entire body had fallen asleep.

He had been drifting freely in the river, but his shirt caught on a branch, pulling tight around his upper chest. Oh, kami, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe, he could not breathe! Shirt, out of shirt. He wriggled out of his shirt and suddenly had air again. Where the air was coming from, he didn't know, but apparently, it was somewhere on his chest.

The bank. He had to get out of the water. He'd freeze, no matter how warm he was feeling. He blinked and realized his sockets no longer felt empty. Hues of color and shards of light piercing through the surface of the water to his eyes. He could see! Not very much, given he was still underwater, but he could see. He awkwardly wriggled and waved his arms, his head breaking the surface of the water. He hacked up the remaining water in his lungs, a greenish-black gunk coming up as well. It quickly dissolved back into the water before he could even think about getting a look at it. Probably the poison. Probably, since he didn't eat anything greenish-black recently.

He glanced down, intending to try and see what was the issue with his legs working.

Oh, dear Kami.

A tail. That was a tail. With scales. It was black with a tan underside and a forked tailfin. Fish. His mind immediately identified. It would go back and forth therefore it was a fish tail.

The black and tan coloring did not stop at his waist, but instead continued up, to everywhere he could see. He couldn't see his own face, but he assumed that the coloring continued there. Well, that and the scales explain the weird tingly sensation on his skin a little while ago.

He realized he'd stopped swimming and was sinking. He abruptly choked on water, swallowed some, breathed some in accidentally, which set him to more coughing as he sank. After a moment he remembered to swim and breached the surface again.

He knew how fish swam. His execution, however, left much to be desired.

The only way he could really describe it was an awkward sideways flop through the water.

He managed, somehow, to make it to the shore, awkwardly flopping up onto the sandy bank. Oh, Kami he felt like a beached whale right now. He'd only ever seen one, but he felt as awkward as the one he'd seen. He was on his back for a bit but quickly realized that it was far more comfortable on his side. There was something under or on his back making it very uncomfortable to be on his back, not to mention the tail was also not meant for laying flat like that.

He watched the sky darken for a bit, and began to shiver. The air was colder than the water, or perhaps he was just more sensitive to the air cause he was wet. Either way, he was cold, and the water was warmer, so he wriggled back into the water, snickering at the trail he left behind. It looked a bit like an alligator had wriggled up onto the bank, but there were none in the area. He wondered what people would think if they found the track. With that in mind, he started splashing water up onto the bank, erasing the trail he'd left behind. Luckily, the soft sand was easily convinced.

In the water was warmer, and Shisui sighed happily, carefully keeping his head above water. Maybe when it was morning he'd figure out what exactly happened, and check himself over properly. Although, sleeping would be a problem…

He ended up sleeping half out of the water, his head pillowed on his arms.

He was not in that position when he woke up. Instead, he was at the bottom of the lake, curious fish nibbling at him. His sudden movement scared them all away though. As he was still mostly asleep, on instinct he snapped at them as they flashed away. He swallowed, and then woke up properly to appreciate the fact he'd just swallowed a live fish whole.

Shisui gagged, but he'd already swallowed. Oh well, he'd just have to hope he didn't get sick or anything.

He didn't get sick. Inexplicably, nothing came back up. He went hunting the next day, lying carefully in wait, then startling the fish with movement, and letting his instincts take over. Fish after fish he grabbed that way, managing to make it so not all of them went straight down his throat. Then he realized he probably couldn't cook them anyway, given you couldn't really find kindling in the Naka River. Or any river. Also, he didn't particularly like the burnt fish a Katon jutsu would produce. So he just swallowed the fish anyway. He also discovered, on one occasion of running his tongue over his teeth, that he had a second set. They were sharp, and were, for lack of a better term, sheathed in his gums when he wasn't using them. With a bit of practice, and a few more fish, he figured out how to bare them at will.

At least he had sort of figured out how to swim. It was still a bit awkward, and certainly wasn't very fast, but it got the job done.

Next up on his mental list, patting himself down and trying to figure out if he was hurt. And hopefully, figure out how he was breathing fine underwater.

Gills. Apparently, it was gills. They weren't very visible against the scales, given their dark color, and what Shisui figured was probably a gill plate of some sort. It slid down to fully cover the gills when he wasn't in the water and slid back up when he was using them to breathe. Which, boy was that weird, cause when in the water he didn't use his mouth and nose to breathe at all. He could 'breathe out' or cough up water, but it was far more comfortable just using the gills. He could also tell there was something running down his back, he just couldn't see it. Or tell what it was through touch alone.

He found out what it was a few days later when a much larger fish startled him and the thing on his back, now known to be a dorsal fin, snapped up, startling both the larger fish, who flashed away in a silver blip and Shisui, who jumped at the feeling of something running down his spine snapping up.

He spent the rest of the day figuring out how to control it and make it go up and fold back down.

On his fifth day, he tried a jutsu. Given that he was in the water, it seemed like a good idea to use the one water jutsu he'd learned, not just copied.

It was far more powerful and used less chakra then he remembered. The water bullets almost managed to put a hole in a tree. Said tree had fallen over backward a while ago.

His sixth day he practiced hunting some more, getting it under control better. He managed to get himself to let go of most of the fish, although if he got distracted, the fish went down his throat. Not that he minded, he'd given up caring he was eating live fish whole a few days ago, and he was almost always hungry. He'd noticed the increase in his appetite, even if it wasn't much more than usual, given he was a very active teenage boy.

Seventh and eighth days he spent mostly hiding at the bottom of the river, cause someone had decided to come practice water walking. Luckily, his coloring was rather conducive to hiding at the bottom of the river among the river stones. Also, the person had chosen a faster flowing area, so the shifting currents mostly kept him from being seen.

Using that time, he did figure out he had a sort of third eyelid if that's what it was called. With it closed, he could see much better underwater, which was quite helpful.

The eighth day, after the person had left for the day, Shisui pulled himself out of the water and onto a convenient rock that hung over the river. It was slanted and near sunset, like it was now, the rock was very warm, and the sunlight was shining on it. Shisui had found he very much liked the extra warmth. Unfortunately, his nap had been interrupted the day before, sending him into the water very quickly. But this time, it shouldn't be interrupted, and he could nap on the stone.

Just before he was going to fall asleep, the only slightly chilly spring air got a heck lot colder on his skin. Reluctantly, Shisui opened his eyes, squawking and flailing as he realized that his arms were not black and scaly anymore, they were smooth and pale. He glanced down at where his tail had been, and yep, he had legs now. Oddly enough, his pants were intact, which confused him, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He shivered again, rubbing his arms. He did not have his shirt, he'd lost it during that initial confusion of 'what the heck happened'. Oh well, he wasn't Shunshin no Shisui for nothing. He could just pop into his house real quick, pull on a shirt, and saunter back into Konoha as though nothing had happened. Wouldn't that shock a few people.

**(A/N) Yep, I'm goin full fantasy here. Spirits and all. Shisui currently heavily resembles a sailfish, but with darker coloring. Black instead of blue, tan instead of the pale brown underbelly, etc. I'll further explain how spirits work here later, when it becomes a question. Mers, well, Shisui'll have to figure that out himself. This is the first of the new stories! Go check out the others once they're up too! Also, was no one curious about this? I mean, yeah, I had freaking dinosaurs and an Alice in Wonderland reference as two of the others, but still!**


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N) Hello! Miss me?**

Curious, Shisui checked his sides. The gill plate was visible but blended into his skin enough that it was hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it.

He quickly shunshined to his room in the Uchiha district but found it completely empty. He frowned and shunshined straight to Itachi's room in the clan head's house. Itachi wouldn't mind if he borrowed a shirt, probably, anyway.

Itachi's room was covered in a thin layer of dust. Shisui wasn't too surprised, Itachi didn't stay in his room for long. He pulled out a shirt from Itachi's shirt drawer and pulled it on. A bit small on him, but he and Itachi were not exactly that close in size. Itachi's tendency to wear larger than his size shirts helped a bit, but not entirely.

Now that he'd stopped for half a second, and actually paused to breathe, the scent of blood caught his attention. Why did the compound, and Itachi's room especially, smell like stale blood? And how could he smell it? Kakashi. He'd go ask Kakashi why the compound was silent, dark, had no people, and smelled of stale blood.

He shunshined to Kakashi's front door, and knocked, hoping that the ANBU was home.

Kakashi opened the door and could only stare at Shisui, who was standing there, mostly dry, but his hair was still dripping a little bit, smelling like fish, and wearing a clearly slightly too small shirt. Also, he was very clearly alive. Something he was not supposed to be.

"Hi," Shisui said. "Why does the Uchiha compound smell like stale blood?"

Kakashi's brain took a few moments to reboot. "Huh?"

Shisui frowned slightly, tilting his head. "You all right, Kakashi?"

Kakashi shook his head, much like a dog shakes off water. "Right, come in please." He moved aside, opening the door further.

Shisui nodded to him, stepping inside a bit clumsily as if he hadn't walked in a while.

Kakashi closed the door behind the teen, plopping down on his couch and rubbing behind Bull's massive ears. "You're alive."

Shisui nodded. "I am."

"Your eyes are blue," Kakashi continued, a bit faintly.

Shisui blinked at him. "They are?"

Kakashi frowned slightly at him. "Did you not look in a mirror at all?"

Shisui chuckled nervously. "Ah, where I was recovering did not have any mirrors."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you go straight to the Hokage after you were recovered? Why here?"

Shisui paused. "Ah, good point. I should probably go report…"

Kakashi rolled his eye. "Go do that then. Did you want a shirt? That one's a bit small."

Shisui chuckled. "Ah, yes, please. I didn't find anything in my room, so I went and borrowed one of Itachi's. He won't notice anyway."

Kakashi rolled his eye again and went into his room to find a shirt. He found one and tossed it to Shisui. "Now shoo, you're supposed to be dead, and the Hokage will want to know that you aren't."

Shisui blushed faintly, pulling it on, and nodded, shunshining out.

To say the Hokage was surprised would be an understatement. Few people had the clearance to enter his office via shunshin, almost all jounin, so he hadn't been particularly worried when someone shunshined in. If his ANBU were worried, they wouldn't have let the person in.

Or maybe it was the shock. Hiruzen thought after glancing up to find Uchiha Shisui standing there.

Said jounin, crouching there in a slightly too big shirt, slightly wet pants, and very much alive, waited for Hiruzen to tell him to go ahead.

"Report," Hiruzen managed through his shock.

Shisui bowed his head and began. "I met Danzo in a clearing near Training Ground 23."

As Shisui's report continued, Hiruzen grew more and more grave. His old friend had gone way too far. At the part about how Danzo had removed Shisui's eye, Hiruzen stopped the jounin. "You have both your eyes," he said, raising an eyebrow.

Shisui chuckled slightly embarrassedly, rubbing the back of his head. "That's explained a bit later. May I continue?"

Hiruzen nodded.

Shisui continued. "The ANBU accompanying him continued to attack, one of them poisoning me further. That poison was a temporary one, meant to slow me down enough for them to take my other eye. The first one, I am unsure as to when it got administered, was a relatively slow-acting poison intended to kill me. After I was dead, it would destroy itself."

Hiruzen frowned deeper.

"I paused in a clearing, activating my Mangekyou temporarily for a final attack. At which point, Itachi swooped in, killing the remaining two ANBU not taken out by my attack, and picked me up. We arrived in a different part of the forest, and he set me against a tree."

"So that's why he came back early," Hiruzen mused. "A good thing, apparently."

Shisui nodded, continuing. As he continued, Hiruzen made a note to get him in to see a Yamanaka. Whether his attempted suicide worked or not, they could not have him try it again. Perhaps he could have Shisui move in with Sasuke and Mikoto, and request they keep a close eye on him.

Shisui paused after he explained that he did, in fact, fall off the cliff. "Ah, could we go find a lake or deep river or something? It would greatly help the explanation of where I was the last eight days…"

Hiruzen nodded, standing up from behind his desk. It was a welcome break from paperwork anyway. Any excuse to get out of the paperwork.

They relocated to the training ground in the Hokage's residence. It had a pond to practice water-walking, and as Asuma was away at the capital, and Konohamaru was very young, they would not be interrupted.

Shisui immediately shed his shirt and hopped straight into the water. Hiruzen watched, mildly confused, as the jounin sort of shimmered, as though under a genjutsu. Something black and tan took Shisui's place, and the creature grinned disarmingly, staring at them with blue eyes. "Hi."

Hiruzen blinked. "Shisui?"

Shisui nodded. "Yep. Took me a bit to realize I could shift. Eight days, actually."

"Explain," Hiruzen said tiredly.

"I'm pretty sure it was a water spirit, they're the one that got rid of the poison and uh, regrew my eyes. I'm pretty sure that's the reason for the fact that they're blue."

Hiruzen sighed heavily. He was way too old to be dealing with spirits. "Do you believe the spirit was being mischievous?"

Shisui shook his head. "They said something, 'this will not do', or something similar. They sounded rather regretful."

Hiruzen nodded. That, at least, was good. One less thing to deal with. "If you wouldn't mind getting out, I would like to have a Yamanaka check your story."

Shisui nodded, pulling himself out of the water and shifting again, pulling the shirt back on. Briefly, Hiruzen wondered what happened with his pants. They hadn't torn or anything and looked basically the same as when he'd jumped into the water if a bit wetter. An ANBU dropped into sight to offer Shisui a towel if just so he wouldn't drip water everywhere.

Ultimately, they got Shisui cleared. Inoichi confirmed his story, with only a few strange looks at Shisui. Now the hard part, telling him what happened while he was gone.

"So, why does the Uchiha compound smell like dried blood?" Shisui asked, tilting his head.

Hiruzen sighed. "Shisui, while you were gone, just a few days ago, Itachi slaughtered the Uchiha clan, leaving only his little brother and mother alive."

If he hadn't been sitting down, Shisui probably would have staggered back in shock. "He did what?"

Hiruzen just nodded.

Shisui looked spooked. "Who ordered him?"

Hiruzen looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"If these are the ANBU that already know, they can stay, if not, perhaps best they leave," Shisui muttered.

"They know," Hiruzen said.

Shisui nodded. "Danzo said my plan wouldn't work right before he tore out my eye. I believe he may have ordered Itachi, in your name, to massacre the clan."

Hiruzen frowned. "I vetoed that plan of his long ago."

"You also vetoed ROOT," Shisui pointed out.

Hiruzen inclined his head tiredly. "Perhaps it is long overdue that we execute Danzo for treason."

Shisui remained quiet. He was all for it, of course.

"If we do, what should we do with your eye?" Hiruzen asked. "You already have two."

Shisui shook his head. "You can destroy it. Clearly I don't need it anymore. No need for it to cause more trouble."

Hiruzen nodded. "Do you know if you still have the Sharingan?"

Shisui shook his head. "Highly doubtful. It doesn't really matter though, I will manage without."

Hiruzen nodded. "Good. You will have a recovery time, if you are clear by the end, I will clear you for missions."

Shisui nodded. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen nodded. "You will move in with Mikoto and Sasuke, they'll keep an eye on you. Fair warning, there is a very good chance that the council will insist that a non-Uchiha move in with you guys."

Shisui nodded. He'd thought that would probably happen. "I would suggest Hatake Kakashi if that is the case. The Uchiha left alive do not hold negative feelings towards him."

Hiruzen nodded. "I will take your suggestion into account. Dismissed."

Shisui nodded. "Ah, do you know if they got rid of my stuff? Or might I be able to find it."

"You're a bit out of luck, as most of the belongings of Uchiha's were burned earlier today. Weapons were placed in the Uchiha armory."

Shisui sighed. "I was afraid of that. Oh well, I was starting to grow out of my clothes anyway. Have a good night Hokage-sama."

"You too," Hiruzen replied, sighing as he surveyed the stacks of paperwork he'd barely dented.

**(A/N) Right! So, go see the poll about what you wish to be updated next Tuesday, and vote! Also, haha, poor Shisui, stuck in shirts that don't fit him. Danzo will be taken care of in due time, but for now, expect him to appear as he always has. **


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N) HI! Guest: *amused* Just the summary? Nothing else? **

Shisui shunshined out, going straight to one of the stores that was still open. It was already well past dinner, so Mikoto probably wouldn't mind if he stopped to get clothing before he told her he was alive. Also, it was quite a bit past little Sasuke's bedtime, and he did not want to wake him up. Best to wait until he was deeply asleep.

He knew he could grab his weapons back from the Uchiha armory, so he didn't bother getting weapons, although he did grab a waterproofing kit for his weapons.

He shunshined to the front door of the clan head's house, hesitating before knocking.

Mikoto opened the door, a very sleepy Sasuke balanced on her hip. Eight years old the kitten may be, but it was nothing to a former kunoichi.

"Shisui!" She gasped quietly. "Get in here."

Shisui blinked, but stepped inside, closing the door behind him, and taking off his shoes. "Hello, Mikoto-sama."

Mikoto shook her head. "Just Mikoto is fine. You're lucky an ANBU came to warn me you were coming."

Shisui chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "I hope I didn't wake small Sasuke up, Aunt Mikoto."

Mikoto shook her head sadly, patting Sasuke's head where it rested on her shoulder. "He's been having relentless nightmares, he's been sleeping with me most nights, but it's not helping much. Usually, he went to Itachi with nightmares, but… well, you know what happened."

Shisui nodded sadly. "I was told. I'm sorry."

"Nothing you could've done," Mikoto said softly, patting his shoulder.

Shisui knew that wasn't true. He could've tried to shift earlier, done something to stop Itachi… "Right."

Mikoto gave him a disapproving stare but didn't comment.

"I can room with Sasuke if you want. I'm not Itachi, but I can try and help a bit," Shisui offered.

Mikoto nodded gratefully, moving into the kitchen and beginning to heat up a mug of milk. "Would you like some warm milk, Shisui?"

Shisui shook his head. "I'm good. Thank you."

Mikoto nodded amicably, handing the mug to Sasuke, who managed to grip it and drink from it.

Sasuke, clearly feeling a bit more awake, blinked at Shisui. "Didn't you die?" He asked sleepily.

Shisui rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, no, but everyone thought I did."

"'Tachi-nii said you wanted to die," Sasuke said softly, Mikoto patting his back gently. "You aren't gonna try and die again?"

Shisui felt like he'd gotten a tanto to the stomach. He'd forgotten about the suicide note he'd left. Darn it. "Ah, no, I won't. Promise."

Sasuke looked like he wanted to make extra sure somehow, but was too tired.

"Here," Shisui said, trying to get the imaginary tanto out of his stomach that Sasuke's sad face had put there. "I'll even sleep next to you, and you can keep an eye on me."

Sasuke nodded, finishing off his mug of milk. He wriggled out of his mother's arms, padding back down the hall to his room.

Mikoto watched him go with a fond smile. "Why don't you go take a shower, Shisui. You smell like river water and fish."

"Good reason for both of those…" Shisui muttered under his breath.

Mikoto chuckled. "And I expect you to tell me. When you don't stink, and it isn't two in the morning. Shoo."

Shisui nodded sheepishly, leaving the kitchen to find the bathroom. He'd been in their house enough to know where Itachi's bathroom was, and given that his cousin was a missing-nin, Shisui figured he wouldn't mind if he used his bathroom. Not that he'd minded before. Itachi was oh so nice, and didn't mind Shisui's less then Uchiha-ish personality.

He took a quick shower, although he doubted that the smell of fish would ever leave him, given what he could do. Oh well. Wasn't like he hadn't really smelled of river water before, given his habit of sitting next to the river for hours on end when he could.

Sasuke was already snuggled in his blankets and watched Shisui as he came in. Shisui traced Sasuke's line of sight to his wrists and realized that he'd probably gotten a talk that no kitten as young as Sasuke, eight years old or not, should have had to deal with. To reassure him, Shisui allowed Sasuke to inspect his wrists and arms as he wriggled underneath the covers with Sasuke.

Seemingly satisfied, Sasuke snuggled up to him, wrapping his arms around Shisui, as though Sasuke was afraid he'd leave. Shisui smiled softly at his last remaining cousin. At least Sasuke seemed to have gotten over that odd dislike of him he'd developed a while ago. Shisui guessed it may have been because he would often steal Itachi from Sasuke to spar, train, or just talk about the coup.

Sasuke didn't let Shisui out of his sight that next day, and Shisui quietly allowed it, deliberately staying within Sasuke's range of vision.

If it made the kitten feel better, then he'd do it. It wasn't that troublesome anyway, he was off of active status, so he couldn't do any missions, and Sasuke was excused from school for at least another day. However, around late afternoon, they were called to the Hokage's office.

"Hokage-sama," Mikoto said, bowing. Shisui would have too, except he worried he'd overbalance and fall on his face if he tried, given that Sasuke had decided he wanted a ride from Shisui and was currently hanging on his back like an overgrown koala bear.

The Hokage looked like he understood Shisui not bowing, given his amused look at Sasuke's koala bear impression.

Danzo, on the other hand, did not look pleased. Not that Shisui cared all that much, oh how he'd love to bash Danzo's face in.

"I have called you here because the council is worried," the Hokage began, the slight expression of annoyance giving away that he did not think it was necessary.

"About Shisui-nii?" Sasuke asked innocently.

"Partially," the Hokage allowed, smiling softly at Sasuke, who ducked his head behind Shisui at the attention of the Hokage.

Mikoto frowned minutely. She knew what this was about, and so did Shisui. If he could just spit it out, please.

"We don't trust you," Danzo snapped finally, startling Sasuke, who visibly jumped. Shisui patted his leg reassuringly.

"Our clan is down to three people," Mikoto said. "What could we possibly do?"

"You are two highly skilled jounin and a child," Danzo snapped back.

Shisui stifled the growl that rose in his chest, and settled for flashing a few very sharp teeth, courtesy of his second set of teeth, at Danzo. Danzo looked rather shocked, so the Hokage probably hadn't told him about Shisui's second form, which was good. Although, he was pretty sure he'd forgotten to display both breathing underwater, and his second set of teeth to the Hokage.

"Danzo," the Hokage snapped. "That's enough."

Danzo quieted but continued staring distrustfully at the Uchiha. Shisui shifted slightly so Sasuke couldn't see Danzo.

The Hokage sighed, rubbing his temples. This had not gone well. "Danzo, leave. Now."

Danzo opened his mouth to protest, but the Hokage shot him a glare with a touch of killing intent, and he closed his mouth, getting up and leaving.

The Hokage sighed, looking a good ten years older as Danzo left, closing the door behind him. "I apologize for his actions."

Mikoto and Shisui remained quiet, and Sasuke hid his face in Shisui's curly hair.

The Hokage sighed again. "I am requesting for you to allow Hatake Kakashi to stay with you for a while if just to quiet any rumors and quiet the council."

Mikoto narrowed her eyes. "Fine."

"Dismissed," Hiruzen said tiredly.

The two jounin nodded to him, then left quickly.

Kakashi seemed just as reluctant, but Shisui caught him sneaking glances at his wrists and knew Kakashi had volunteered for the job. Kakashi had been fond of Itachi, and had known Shisui before, if not very well.

Briefly, Shisui wondered how long they would be so frantic about checking his wrists when there was nothing to see; and there would never be anything to see.

Kakashi opted to bed down with Shisui and Sasuke, Sasuke in the middle of Kakashi and Shisui, happily sandwiched, and with a half a dozen dogs sleeping on his feet.

Sasuke woke up to something in his face. He batted at it, but it didn't move. He reluctantly opened his eyes to find a black and slightly transparent thing in front of his face. He frowned and moved it away from his face to get a better look at it. It looked like black skin stretched between sticks. Where did it come from? Sasuke wriggled downwards, wriggling his way out of the human dogpile he, Shisui, and Kakashi plus his dogs had formed. He managed to wriggle out, blinking sleepily as he tried to figure out where the thing that had woken him up had come from.

He could clearly see Kakashi, and most of the dogs, but where Shisui had been was just an odd black thing, the thingy that had smacked him in the face attached to its back.

Sasuke walked up and poked it.

Blue eyes opened and blinked at him sleepily. "Sasuke? What in kami are you doing awake at this hour?"

Sasuke stared at him. Yep, it was cousin Shisui. "You're black." He said bluntly.

Shisui looked confused for a few moments before he blinked and seemed to realize what Sasuke meant. "Ah, haha, sorry about that. Lemme just…" he trailed off, shifting was really the only word Sasuke could think of when Shisui sort of shimmered and became, well, human again."Sorry, did I hit you or something?"

Sasuke nodded. "In the face."

Shisui winced sympathetically. "Sorry. Promise I didn't do it on purpose! I was just dreaming about swimming, and I guess I shifted in my sleep."

Sasuke raised a sleepy eyebrow. "Shifted?"

Shisui shook his head. "Later in the morning, over breakfast and with Mikoto, I'll explain."

"You'd better," Kakashi murmured from Shisui's other side.

"I will," Shisui promised. "Go back to sleep Sasuke."

Sasuke frowned minutely at his cousin, but acquiescenced and flopped down in the spot Shisui made by scooting backward into Kakashi. He fell asleep quickly, as he was still quite tired.

Mikoto came to wake her boys up, only to find only two of them, and an odd black thing sleeping between the two she could see.

"Good morning," she called.

Sasuke opened his eyes first, rolling out of the bed and wandering over to the door, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Morning kaa-san."

She nodded to Sasuke, letting him pass.

Kakashi woke up next, poking the odd creature. "Wake up you water obsessed lump of scales," he muttered.

The creature yawned, rolling over. "In a moment," it muttered in Shisui's voice.

"No, now. Get up you stupid lump of scales and shift back."

The so-called lump of scales shimmered, almost like a genjutsu, and a very human Shisui took its place. "Sorry, did I hit you with my dorsal fin again?"

"No, you idiot, Mikoto's waiting for an explanation."

Shisui jumped about a foot in the air when he noticed Mikoto standing there, an amused look on her face. "Uh, hi Aunt Mikoto. I can explain."

"I would hope so," she replied calmly. "Do it over breakfast, would you?"

Shisui nodded, slightly embarrassed.

"And do us a favor and put a shirt on," Mikoto added, almost as an afterthought.

Shisui squeaked undignifiedly, and shunshined over to his dresser, hurriedly pulling on a shirt.

Mikoto chuckled, leaving the room and heading back for the kitchen.

**(A/N) *snickering* I'd say he's about the most unUchiha to ever Uchiha. Next to Obito and Kagami. Anyway, poll up on profile, go check that out. **


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N) More explanations of stuff that occured, and the whole spirit thing. **

"Shisui-nii," Sasuke poked him. "Explain."

Shisui folded dramatically at Sasuke's poke, almost collapsing right onto Sasuke, who shoved him off and right onto Kakashi, who jabbed Shisui in the ribs. "Alright, alright," Shisui conceded, straightening. "So, Sasuke, Aunt Mikoto's told you all the old Uchiha clan stories about fire spirits?"

Sasuke nodded, and Kakashi looked thoughtful. "Itachi mentioned something about those, they're apparently very similar to old Hatake legends about lightning spirits."

Shisui inclined his head, swallowing a bite of food. "Right, well, I fell off the cliff, and the water sort of caught me, so I didn't die right when I hit the water. I'm pretty sure it was a water spirit that did it, so we should probably be grateful I didn't end up as a seal or something."

Mikoto chuckled softly. "Perhaps."

Sasuke stuffed more food in his mouth, chewing and swallowing. "So, now will you train me?"

"Perhaps," Shisui admitted reluctantly. "Itachi was oh so reluctant to train with you because he didn't want you traumatized by war like he was."

Sasuke scrunched up his face. "But we aren't at war!"

"Any more," Kakashi agreed. "But the fact remains, he wanted you to have the childhood that he was robbed of."

Sasuke pouted. "He coulda at least said so! I would have asked to go to the park or something."

Shisui ruffled Sasuke's hair. "Well, we can always do that now!"

Sasuke batted his hand away. "I thought you were going to stare at the water some more."

Shisui blinked at him. "Huh?"

"You were always doing it!" Sasuke declared. "Whenever you weren't running around with nii-san, or on a mission, or whatever else you did. Always sitting by the water."

Shisui gave him an odd look. "Most people can't find me when I'm not on a mission or training."

Sasuke shrugged. "You aren't that hard to find. And you never pay attention when you're staring at the water."

Shisui pouted. "I do too!"

Sasuke's face was deadpan. "No, you really don't."

"So that's what you're always doing," Kakashi mused.

"Oh, like Itachi didn't tell you already," Shisui said, elbowing him.

Kakashi focused on his pancakes as a reply.

Mikoto chuckled.

When Mikoto dragged Naruto, Shisui, Kakashi, and Sasuke into his office one day, Hiruzen wasn't all that surprised. He knew Fugaku had been preventing Mikoto from taking in Naruto, so since Fugaku had been killed with the other Uchiha, he'd been waiting for Mikoto to come in and try and adopt Naruto. Kami, he hoped Danzo wouldn't put up too much of a fight against it.

Honestly, he'd been waiting for this to happen since about a month after the Massacre happened, and now it had been three months, so he figured this visit was a bit overdue.

"Mikoto," he said, shuffling his papers around to look at least slightly busy.

Mikoto didn't look too impressed. "Hokage-sama. Now that my husband is no longer with the living, Naruto will be living with the Uchiha clan."

Danzo slammed his hands down. "No," he growled. "I'm doing enough already by letting you remain together with minimal supervision. I'm not letting the-" he was abruptly cut off by a kunai that sailed past his head.

"Third's law!" Shisui reminded him cheerfully.

Danzo glared at him, and Shisui grinned, showing just the tips of his sharp teeth. Danzo growled, but backed off.

There was awkward silence for a while, then Danzo spoke again. "If you have ANBU Bear with you."

Kakashi brightened slightly, and clearly, that was all Mikoto needed to decide to keep yet another person. The house needed more people to brighten it up anyway.

"Alright. Where might he be?" Mikoto asked, adjusting Naruto on her hip. Really, he was far too old for it, and so was Sasuke, but she didn't mind keeping them close for just a little bit longer.

They finally dragged Naruto to the Uchiha compound, dropping his stuff off in the shared room. Tenzo selected to have his own room next door. Kakashi gave it a week before he wanted to move into their room.

They ended up in the back yard, where there was a smallish koi pond. Large enough for the massive koi, but not that big. Certainly large enough to go swimming in.

As soon as Naruto got close to the pool, a figure rose from the water, forming on the top and trying to rush forwards, probably to hug Naruto. It didn't work because Naruto skittered back, and the figure sorta collapsed in on themselves as soon as they set foot on land.

"Ghost!" Naruto shrieked, hiding behind Kakashi.

Shisui frowned slightly, kneeling down and tapping the surface of the water. "Hello?"

A head formed from the water, then the rest of the body, forming the shape of a woman. "Hi! Seems like I can't leave the water though, so that's unfortunate."

The woman gained color, and Mikoto made a strangled gasp noise. "Kushina?"

The woman waved. "Hi, Mikoto!"

"You were dead," Kakashi said faintly, leaning against a nearby wall.

"Hi, water spirit!" Shisui chirped.

Kushina waved to Shisui. "Hello, guppy! You doing okay?"

Shisui nodded. "Coulda at least warned me though."

Kushina laughed, rubbing the back of her head. "Ah, sorry 'bout that, dattebane! It's just that you were dying, and I couldn't let that happen, and I'm really new to this whole water spirit thing, 'tebane!"

Mikoto shook her head. "Same old Kushina."

Kushina shook her fist at Mikoto. "You try dying and being told you're being turned into a spirit, 'tebane!"

Mikoto chuckled, holding up her hands. "Right, right, sorry."

"Who are you?" Naruto asked, supremely confused.

Kushina jumped, immediately laughing and rubbing the back of her head. "Ah, forgot to introduce myself! I'm Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, nice to meet you!"

"You have the same last name as me, 'tebayo!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at her.

"Well, of course, I do!" Kushina said, just as loudly. "I'm your Kaa-san!"

"Whaaa!?" Naruto freaked. "Whadda mean you're my mom, 'tebayo!"

Mikoto sighed, stopping what would have been a shouting match in its tracks. "Naruto-kun, this is your mother. Kushina, please be gentle with him, he was not informed he even had parents."

Kushina freaked out majorly, making an aborted movement towards Naruto. "How could they! Who does Kaa-san need to prank!?"

"Given you can't leave the water, I don't think you can prank much of anyone, Kushina-nee," Kakashi said tiredly.

Kushina pouted. "You guys can help me then!"

"I'm up for it!" Shisui volunteered.

Mikoto sighed heavily. "If you get caught, I'm not bailing you out."

Shisui cheered and hugged her. "You're the best, Aunt Mikoto!"

Kushina giggled maliciously.

Naruto frowned suddenly. "If you're my mom, who's my dad?"

"No Kushina, you can't murder anyone," Mikoto said immediately, recognizing the murderous expression on her longtime friend's face.

Kushina huffed. "Fine. Guppy, your dad is Minato Namikaze, Fourth Hokage, and the biggest dork in Konoha."

Naruto's mouth was wide open. "My dad's the Fourth Hokage, 'tebayo?"

Kushina nodded, smirking. "Yep!"

"Woah," Naruto muttered, amazed.

"You can't tell anyone, alright, kitten?" Mikoto cautioned. "If Lord Third found out you know, he could think that I told you, and that would be bad."

Kushina frowned. "What in Kami is wrong with Naruto knowing his parents?"

"I believe Lord Third thinks that Naruto would tell everyone, and it'd get out, and people would target him because he is the legacy of the Yellow Flash."

"Psh, clearly, he's got his Kashi-nii now to defend him!" Kushina chirped, making an aborted move to ruffle Kakashi's hair. Kakashi obligingly stood close enough to the pond for her to reach out and ruffle his hair. "An he's my guppy! He'll be fine!"

Mikoto sighed. "Either way, it is not my choice, it is the Hokage's."

"Gimmie a water bottle and I'll speak to 'im!" Kushina declared, shaking her fist in the direction of the Hokage.

"Kushina-san," Shisui started.

"Just Kushina's fine!" Kushina interrupted.

"Alright, Kushina then, how would giving you a water bottle help anything?"

"Well, technically I'm tied to water in general. So any old puddle of water would work, so technically one of you would have to carry the water bottle to the Hokage's office, then pour it out on the floor so I can use it to appear." Kushina shrugged. "But, semantics."

Mikoto sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "It's a miracle Naruto got his father's planning skills, since with yours, he wouldn't be able to prank the ANBU every week or so."

"HE DOES WHAT?!" Kushina shouted.

**(A/N) *snickers* Like the wild Kushina that appeared?**


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N) Kushina's great. **

Kushina made grabby hands at Naruto. "Get over here! Mommy wants hugs!"

Mikoto snickered, pushing Naruto forward gently. Naruto, still in shock, stumbled forward and hugged his mother, very confused.

"I'm so proud! Pranking ANBU at your age! Did'ja get away with it?" Kushina asked eagerly, finishing her hug and holding him at arm's length.

"Not always," Naruto admitted. "But sometimes!"

"Mommy's so proud!" Kushina declared, hugging him again.

Shisui coughed. "The ANBU are less so."

"I can see you smiling from here!" Kushina replied cheerfully. "Don't think for a second I'm blind!"

"Of course not Kushina," Mikoto reassured her. "No one would ever think that."

Kushina glared suspiciously at Mikoto, but ultimately dropped it.

"Alright, my cute little guppy!" Kushina said, forming sitting down cross-legged two days later. "I need to have a chat with your furry friend, so I'm gonna teach you what I did to let Minato talk to him."

"What?" Naruto asked, sitting down too. "What furry friend?"

Kushina looked decidedly furious, and Shisui was quick to intervene from where he was swimming in a different pond, hopping out and coming over quickly. "The Hokage decided not to tell him because he was just a baby when it happened."

"That's stupid!" Kushina decided, frowning deeply.

Naruto looked between them, still very confused. "What furry friend? Why is Mom so mad?"

"Well, on the night of your birth, there was an incident," Shisui said, skirting around the topic.

"Ah, he can take it!" Kushina decided. "Guppy! There's a giant nine tailed fox that's super powerful sealed in your stomach."

Naruto gaped at her. "Whaaa?"

Kushina concentrated, and a tiny nine tailed fox appeared in the water next to her. "That! But like, really big."

Naruto looked down at his stomach. "It fit in my stomach?"

"Well, not _in_ your stomach, it's in a seal that's on your stomach," Shisui explained. "Like the storage seals we used to help you move."

"Ooooh!" Naruto said, nodding. "I see now!"

"Wonderful! See, I held the Kyuubi, that's what we call the fox, before you did! And now I need to have a chat with him! Just because he hated me, doesn't mean he can be rude to you!"

Shisui decided to go back to swimming and leave the Uzumaki alone.

"But how d'ya get him outta the seal?" Naruto wondered, poking at his stomach again.

"By a shadow clone! He should come and possess one, and then I can have a chat with him!"

"What's a shadow clone?" Naruto asked, perfect innocence on his face.

Kushina tried to do it automatically, then realized she couldn't. "Uchiha guppy! Come demonstrate a shadow clone!"

Shisui's head popped out of the water, and he sighed heavily, the scales disappearing as he hopped out of the water again. "Alright, alright, fledgling, this is a shadow clone." He made the sign, a shadow clone popping into being next to him. "Why don't you go off over behind that pillar over there, play a game of rock paper scissors, then kick my clone in the shins to dispel him."

Shisui's clone glared at him, but followed Naruto behind a pillar.

A moment later, Shisui winced and rubbed his shin. "You just had to kick that hard, didn't'cha, fledgling."

Naruto came out from behind the pillar, clearly proud of himself. "Yep! So why'd I do that?"

"I won our round of rock paper scissors with rock because you had scissors," Shisui told him.

"Waa! How do you know that!"

"Cause the shadow clone gives its memories back to the caster!" Kushina chirped. "So now poor Uchiha guppy gets to deal with a sore leg!"

"Sorry Shisui!" Naruto said, his grin not making him seem very sorry at all. He plopped back down in front of his mother. "So what'm I doin?"

"Make a shadow clone, and with any luck, the old fox is awake and will possess it!"

"That doesn't seem too solid," Shisui said, looking mildly suspicious. Then his expression cleared and he sat down. "Let's do it!"

Kushina grinned, clapping her hands together. "Now! The hand signs are this. Alternatively, the Uzumaki hand sign is this." She demonstrated both. "See which works best!"

Naruto tried them both, and while nothing happened for the first set, the Uzumaki seal yielded a fox shaped clone.

"So you are awake! That makes this easy!"

Naruto moved so he was on his hands and knees in front of the fox. "Uh, Mr. Kyuubi? D'ya have an actual name?"

Kushina and Shisui blinked at him, then at the Kyuubi.

The Kyuubi seemed just as surprised. "Kurama. My name's Kurama."

"Hi Kurama!" Naruto chirped. "Mom wants to have a chat with you!"

"Kushina," Kurama greeted the water spirit.

"Naruto! Why don't you take Shisui and see what Mikoto's cooking?"

It didn't sound like a suggestion, so Shisui stood up quickly, pulling Naruto up with him. "Naruto, why don't we go find out your chakra affinity?"

"It's wind," Kurama tossed up. "I would know, I live in him."

"We'll check anyway cause chakra paper's really cool!" Shisui insisted, dragging Naruto off. "And then we can start you on wind manipulation!"

"If you insist," Naruto relented, trailing after Shisui.

Shisui found a training ground underneath a tree on the opposite side of the compound, cheerfully handing Naruto a piece of paper before hopping in the pond. "So, channel chakra into the paper, and what it does will tell us your chakra affinity!"

Naruto channeled chakra into the paper, and it immediately split in half, then one corner burnt slightly, and the other half became soaked.

"Alright! You have a strong wind affinity, probably from your dad, a slightly weaker water affinity, probably from your mother, and a slight fire affinity, probably from Kurama."

"Cool!" Naruto chirped. "So, what am I doing now?"

"Pick up a leaf," Shisui instructed. Naruto did so, and he continued. "Now, you just have to try and split it with your chakra. You have to use your wind chakra to split it cleanly down the middle."

Naruto nodded, and started concentrating.

A vaguely personish outline formed, and Shisui squinted at it in confusion. Who was that?

**(A/N) Hint hint, Kushi's not the only one turned into a spirit. So, poll, go check it out already. **


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N) Yep, spirit! **

As the spirit formed properly and gained color, Shisui recognized who it was. Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage. But, wasn't he dead? And why hadn't he appeared earlier?

Minato's eyes landed on Naruto, and his entire face lit up like a lightbulb. Shisui hid a smile behind his hand. So Kushina was right about Minato being the biggest dork in Konoha. Not that he had doubted her, of course.

Kurama came bounding around the corner, skidding to a halt when he saw Minato. "You favored the right kit, didn't you, idiot shinigami summoner?"

Minato blinked at the miniature sized fox. "Huh?"

Kushina pulled herself up from the pond Shisui was relaxing in. "Minato!"

"K-Kushina?" he asked, complete and utter confusion on his face. "Aren't you dead? Aren't I dead?" he patted himself down in confusion.

Kushina laughed loudly. "No, silly! We're spirits!"

If possible, Minato looked even more confused. Naruto made a squeaking noise, the realization that he was now facing his dad, the fourth Hokage, apparently setting in.

Kurama gave a very loud and long sigh. "Idiot shinigami summoner, when you summoned the shinigami, there was a ridiculous amount of spirit energy around. With the assistance of several wind spirits that favored you, Minato, and water spirits Kushina was the favored of, you were both transformed into spirits."

Kushina made grabby arms at Minato. "Get over here! I haven't seen you in ages 'tebane!"

Minato obligingly went over and kissed his wife, remaining hugging her sideways. "Why is the last thing I remember being stabbed by your claw, Kyuubi?"

"Kurama," said fox corrected. "I suppressed you. As a far more powerful fire spirit, I suppressed you, working it so when Naruto had a powerful enough connection to the winds, you would be released."

"And you didn't do it with me?" Kushina challenged.

"You're a water spirit," Kurama snapped. "I wasn't touching you with a twenty foot pole. And besides, you probably would've held out fine. You're an Uzumaki, you've been raised with spirits your whole life. And I don't like you. Minato is at least a wind spirit, so I can handle him."

Shisui snorted.

Kurama's attention immediately turned to him. "And don't think I'll get anywhere near you, water child. I'm only this close because that one-" he gestured to Naruto with a tail- "likes you, and you're an Uchiha." He glared at Kushina. "But this one ruined that."

Kushina stuck her nose in the air. "You're just mad you didn't get to him first!"

"Why wouldn't I, you corrupted a perfectly good Uchiha! Look at him, swimming like he was born in Kiri!"

Shisui blushed, sinking into the water until just his eyes were above it.

Minato floated over to Naruto, crouching down next to him and covering his ears. Naruto helpfully covered his own ears too.

"And what about my guppy? He's got a fire affinity cause of you!" Kushina insisted right back, not one to lose an argument.

"You're the ones that put me in there in the first place," Kurama replied, sniffing. "If you didn't want me favoring him, try getting his Uzumaki genes to come out stronger. Look at 'im, he's a carbon copy of Minato. Down to the powerful wind affinity."

Minato started ushering Naruto away, not quite being able to pick him up, not having figured out how to make himself more solid yet. Shisui hopped out of the water, scooping Naruto up, and quickly hurrying away.

"Why are they arguing about me?" Naruto asked, blinking up at him once they were a bit farther away.

"Your mother doesn't particularly like sharing with people she doesn't like," Minato offered. "Her and Kurama have never gotten along well."

"Probably the opposing chakra natures," Shisui said, shrugging and setting Naruto down so he could walk on his own. "Kurama did mention her being a water spirit as one of the reasons he didn't pull the same stunt he did with you."

"What does being a nature spirit even entail?" Minato wondered.

Shisui shrugged. "I only got a few old Uchiha legends to go off of. I guess they usually favor certain people, it gives them a power boost I think. If the old legends about Uchiha Madara having a ton of spirits that favored him are true."

Minato chewed on his lip. "Aren't most invisible to humans?"

Shisui nodded. "I would have to assume so, can you see a bunch of spirits or something?"

Naruto puffed out his cheeks, tugging at Shisui's pant leg. "We're heading away from the main house now," he pointed out. "Aunt Mikoto will be angry if we're late for lunch, which could be happening at any time now."

Shisui stopped dead in his tracks, as did Minato. "You are absolutely right, kitten," Shisui said, hurriedly turning around and starting to walk back towards the main Uchiha house. "We should be getting back."

Minato hurriedly floated after him, Naruto trotting a bit to catch up. "Is Aunt Mikoto scary? Is she really scary enough to scare you Shisui?"

Shisui chuckled nervously. "She used to be a jounin you know, kitten, and I think she's starting to get herself back up to that level so she can begin going on missions again."

"Would she need to?" Minato fretted, starting to float in worried circles, but still moving forward.

Shisui shrugged. "Doubtful, I believe Fugaku prevented her from going back to active service, so she's just taking the opportunity with him gone to do a lot of things he didn't want her to do when he was alive."

"Is that why there aren't any Uchiha around?" Minato asked, stopping his mindless circling.

Shisui nodded shortly. "A massacre, I'll tell you later."

"Boys!" Mikoto called, waving. "Ah, Minato, Kushina informed me you were here, come in."

Minato waved awkwardly, following his son and Shisui into the house.

"Yummy!" Naruto shouted, basically teleporting to his seat with speed that would have made the Yellow… nevermind. Shisui wasn't going to finish that sentence. Even if it was only mental.

Minato floated over to where Kushina was standing in a puddle of water near the counter. Kurama was sitting on the counter near her, so Shisui assumed they'd either called a truce, or finished arguing and reached a compromise.

"Can you not leave the water?" Minato wondered, glancing down at the puddle of water underneath her feet.

Kushina patted his head. "Minato, darling, I am made of water. I'm kinda forever tethered to it."

Minato looked confused. "Then what am I tethered to? If you're tethered to the water, am I just tethered to the air?"

Kurama sniffed. "You're tethered to Naruto, and by extension, me. That is part of the reason I was able to suppress you like I did."

Naruto looked down at his stomach. "That's a lotta stuff to fit inside me," he commented, poking his stomach.

Shisui looped an arm around his shoulders. "Seals are a magical thing, little kitten. They can do a ridiculous amount of things."

"Indeed they can," Mikoto agreed calmly. "Take it from the woman who's friends with two seal masters." She nodded towards where Minato and Kushina were kissing again.

Minato broke off the kiss after a moment, panic beginning to spread across his face. "Can I even hold a pencil ever again? How will I write down ideas! Kushina! Would you get the paper wet and not be able to write on it?"

Mikoto chuckled. "Somehow, I'm pretty sure Kushina-chan can keep her water to herself and not get the paper wet, and if you try hard enough Minato-kun, you'll figure out how to interact with our plane of existence."

Kurama laughed at Minato, leaping off the counter and straight through him. Minato patted his stomach in confusion after Kurama had landed on the ground. "What the heck?" He looked quite distressed, and Kushina patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

"I'm sure you'll manage, sensei," Kakashi said lazily, walking in. "You always do."

"Kakashi!" Minato said, brightening up immediately. "You're still alive!"

"Clearly," Kakashi noted dryly. "Would you be a spirit?"

Minato nodded sadly, clearly wishing he could hug Kakashi.

"When you work out how to solidify, you can hug me," Kakashi allowed, plopping down. Tenzo followed quietly, looking quite overwhelmed at seeing Minato and Kushina standing there.

Mikoto plopped lunch down on the table. "Food, then you can go back to work. Lunch is important."

**(A/N) Yep! It's Minato! So… might anyone want to figure out an excuse for me to let Jyuubi!Madara and Hinata blow up the moon? **


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N) It's like you think a poll is helpful when all of the options currently picked are tied… **

"I'm gonna fail!" Naruto complained, draping himself across Shisui.

"No you aren't," Shisui disagreed.

"Yes I will! They're gonna say my shadow clone isn't a proper clone, and I'm not following the rules, and they're gonna fail me!"

"They won't even notice," Minato pointed out. "If done right, and only seen, not tested, Shadow clones can be indistinguishable from proper clones."

"And besides," Kushina said, drawing seals while laying on the floor. "If they try and fail you I'll go in and yell at them."

"Kushina, you're supposed to be dead," Shisui pointed out, throwing a wrench in the red-head's plotting.

"That can't stop me!" Kushina declared, pointing dramatically at him with her pencil.

"I disagree," Minato said. "If it was discovered you were a spirit that would lead to many questions that no one can answer."

"I mean," Naruto muttered, "Kurama could probably answer them. He just wouldn't do it very nicely."

"Sorry, no one who will voluntarily answer the questions," Minato corrected himself, laughing slightly.

"Anyway," Shisui said, ruffling Naruto's head. "You'll pass just fine."

"You'd better," Sasuke said, flouncing in. "You're supposed to save me from being on a team with too many losers."

Shisui ruffled his hair too. Sasuke batted his hand away. "We jounin have a bit of say about who's in our team."

"That's a terrible idea," Naruto decided. "You'd like, stick us with the strangest girl in the class. Like, I dunno, Sakura. She's really loud."

"Sounds like a good idea, I get to freak it out of her," Shisui decided, grinning with his sharp set of teeth.

"Don't be too hard on her," Kakashi said lazily. "Civvie girls are delicate."

"Fine, I won't eat raw fish in front of her until at least after her first kill, how's that," Shisui called after Kakashi.

"I don't think that counts as delicate," Minato muttered, floating in anxious circles.

"Not at all," Naruto agreed.

"I think it works fine!" Kushina decided.

"You're an Uzumaki," Sasuke sighed, "Your opinion on this matter is void."

"Hey!" Kushina protested loudly.

Naruto glared at his test. He was at least 95% sure it was not the right one, as he didn't remember learning any of this. Oh well, doodle time.

He ended up doodling a little Shisui stick figure swimming around the paper. It was far more entertaining than the test anyway. He did leave a note at the bottom about whether this was the right test or not, then went back to doodling.

The immediate sigh Iruka gave when he picked up Naruto's test was classic, and hilarious to Naruto only.

Sasuke gave a very annoyed and unimpressed look. Naruto decided to treasure the look and tell him it was probably the wrong test later.

The practical jutsu test was conducted one at a time, and with his last name being Uzumaki, he was pretty far down. So he sat in boredom for quite a while.

"What was with that look you gave me?" Sasuke demanded as soon as they were one of maybe four people in the classroom.

"I'm pretty sure I got the wrong test," Naruto said, shrugging. "No big problem. I just noted that down in the corner, and doodled on it."

Sasuke sighed. "Your own fault if you fail that bit cause you didn't alert the teachers right away."

"Mizuki-sensei would have been the one to check my paper and he would've called me a liar," Naruto complained. "He hates me, and that's why I had to wait."

"Fine," Sasuke said. "But don't blame me when you fail."

"Why would I?" Naruto asked, gesturing with his arms.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as he was called. "Just don't fail."

"Good news, I didn't fail," Naruto said upon arriving home.

"Bad news?" Shisui asked, tilting his head.

"I am dead last cause they refused to believe I totally got the wrong test."

"Kushina you can't go on a pranking spree," Minato sighed, shaking his head.

"I passed anyway, and with Sasuke at the top, that makes it easier to put us on the same team," Naruto pointed out. "So no harm done in the end."

Kushina subsided, still pouting, but less obviously ready to go on a pranking spree.

"I'll see what I can do to get you two on my team," Shisui said, stretching. "Anyone wanna swim with me before dinner?"

"I will!" Naruto said, running for their room to fetch his swim suit, Sasuke close behind.

"Team 7, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki," Iruka listed off. Naruto and Sasuke traded annoyed glances and groans while Sakura cheered.

"I hope he scares the screeching out early," Naruto whispered.

"Me too," Sasuke replied, glaring at the girl. "She's way too loud."

"And smells weird, like artificial flowers," Naruto agreed, wrinkling his nose.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"After being around us for long enough she'll smell more like fish then her weird shampoo, which, by the way, smells like Pakkun's."

"You think it's the same stuff?" Sasuke hissed.

"It smells the same," Naruto insisted.

**(A/N) It is canon they use the same shampoo, something I find highly amusing. Everyone's mad at me and I should be sleeping despite the fact I'm not tired, so night! Go check out my poll, and the discord server with a code of pnQAF39. Night!**


	8. Important

**(A/N) While this seems a somewhat surprising decision, I assure you it is anything but unthought out. I am, I'm afraid, under a lot of stress. I'm sorry I took so long to inform you, but I will be taking the month of June off from updating. I will be back in July, back with properly scheduled updates. Again, I am terribly sorry, I know you were probably looking forward to some updates, but I feel like I need to do this. No, there won't be an update tonight. I am sorry, but will see you again in July. This has been posted on all my stories, I apologize for the sudden slew of emails. **


	9. Chapter 8

**(A/N) Hello! This is not wave, at least probably not, but have fun anyway. Made cool new roles in my server. No one cared. It is pretty late at night tho...**

"Hello my cute little guppies!" Shisui chirped, after having collected them from the room and led them to a nearby training ground with a pond. Perhaps he shouldn't have chosen one with a pond, he was barely resisting the temptation to just jump in the water.

"Hey Shisui-nii," Naruto replied cheerfully, grinning at him.

"Hello Shisui-sensei," Sakura replied more formally, bowing shallowly.

Sasuke just waved, looking expectantly at him afterward.

"Right! So you can't be genin just yet, I get to test you! I will be expecting some measure of teamwork, so do not try and lose Sakura, boys." Shisui looked right at them very significantly until they nodded reluctantly. "Now, find and fetch three pieces of chakra paper before the day is out, and we're good. You may not ask other jounin for some, but you can ask about it. Yes I know you boys already know your chakra natures, but we'll test them anyway. It's been a good few years since we did."

The genin nodded, and headed off into the village. Shisui gave in and jumped into the pond as soon as they were out of sight.

"I bet he jumped in the pond as soon as we left," Naruto whispered to Sasuke.

"No bet," Sasuke said immediately. "We both know that's exactly what he did."

"What?" Sakura asked, looking utterly confused.

"Shisui likes water," Naruto decided to explain. "Any more he'll have to tell you himself." It wasn't his secret to tell after all.

Sasuke snickered at his side, and Sakura just looked more confused.

"Don't worry too much about it," Naruto told her, laughing. "Can we ask your mum Sasuke? She'd probably know where to get it, right?"

"Yeah, and since it's close to lunchtime, maybe we can get tomato soup!" Sasuke cheered quietly.

A soft breeze of wind, and Naruto knew his dad had wandered off to tell Kushina and Mikoto that they were coming. "That would be yummy."

Sasuke turned to Sakura, clearly intent on telling her just how good Mikoto's tomato soup was. "It's the best," he started.

Naruto quickly tuned him out. He'd heard this lecture multiple times before. Sasuke really loved his mother's soup. And loved telling everyone all about it.

"I will tell you that you can find enough money to get three pieces in the box on your way out," Mikoto allowed after they had gotten some lunch. "And the shop we usually go to for your clothing should have some."

"Thank you Uchiha-sama," Sakura said politely.

"It's just Mikoto to you dear, you're putting up with three of my children, it's the least I can do."

Sakura blushed, but nodded, following her teammates out.

"Wonderful! You got some!" Shisui greeted them when they got back. It was clear he'd dropped by the compound, as he was eating from a thermos. "You just have to push some chakra into them. Sasuke, Naruto, you've done it before, Sakura, you shouldn't have any problems, you are top of your class in chakra control."

Sakura flushed with pride.

"Know we will be working with it," Shisui added, grinning with just a few too many sharp teeth.

Sakura blanched suddenly, but focused on her paper.

Naruto got about what he expected, paper sliced in half, soaked on one side, and slightly singed on the other. "Wind, water, and a tiny fire."

Sasuke's paper crinkled, then burned to ashes. "Lightning and fire."

Sakura's paper became soaked, then crumbled into ashes. "What's that mean?"

"Earth and water," Shisui said, grinning. "Nice. We got all five elements here, would'cha look at that. Unfortunately, Sakura, I don't know many earth jutsu, and Sasuke, I don't know many lightning. My primary elements are fire, water, and wind. But we can ask Tenzo and Kakashi for earth and lightning."

"Kakashi's useless at teaching," Naruto said bluntly.

"Isn't he a jounin?" Sakura asked, scandalized.

"Yep," Sasuke drawled. "I'm sure he'll get over being called a bad teacher." He would. It wasn't the first time it had been used as an insult. He really wasn't a great teacher.

"Fine, I'll make him demonstrate the jutsu, I'll copy them, then teach them to you. How's that," Shisui offered. "Is that better than facing Kakashi's horrible teaching skills?"

"Yes," Naruto and Sasuke chorused.

"Alright then, for today, I'm going to leave you alone to climb trees with chakra while I find Kurenai and see if she wants a joint training session so she can train you, Sakura." He finished the soup by just dumping it down his throat, and stood up. "I'll check in when I'm finished!"

"I'll be done before then!" Naruto yelled after him.

"Do your best!" Shisui hollered back.

"I got the hang of the water!" Naruto shouted triumphantly.

"Oh really?" Shisui asked, smirking. Team 8 and team 7 minus Sakura were out on the pond, learning to water walk. Naruto knew he made a big mistake when Shisui slid into the water, pulling off his shirt as he went.

"Oh we're doomed," Sasuke agreed.

"What?" Kiba asked, wobbling slightly on the surface of the water. "Why?" Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Shisui-nii's in the water!" Naruto said, waving his arms as if that would help. "And he did his mischievous grin!"

"His what?" Shino asked calmly.

"Mischievous grin. The one he does when he's gonna do so-" Sasuke was cut off as he destabilized from a black hand grabbing his ankle. "SHISUI!"

The hand disappeared before everyone could look over.

"Woah!" Naruto shrieked as a black fin splashed him with water. "Shisui-nii! Whyyy!"

His head popped up, human as usual. "This'll be good practice for you." His head disappeared again, and Akamaru whined as he was sprayed with water.

"It's like a splash fight with a selkie," Kiba whined. "Can't splash them back!"

Hinata squeaked as her ankle was grabbed, and she almost fell, but Kiba and Sasuke, the two closest to her, caught her.

"Careful," Sasuke warned. "He'll do it again."

Naruto squawked as he was splashed, then had his ankle grabbed. "Hey! I'm not falling to your evil schemes!"

Shisui's head poked up out of the water for a moment. "We'll see about that!"

Naruto yelled as he was tugged under the water.

"Get him!" Sasuke shouted, making sure Hinata was securely on the water before lunging for the arm still waving above the water.

Shino walked calmly over to assist.

Naruto started coughing as soon as he was on the surface. "Thanks!"

"No problem," Sasuke replied.

They went back to back after 20 seconds without a Shisui sighting, only for him to break with in the middle of them, soaking their backs, and diving back in right in front of Naruto and Sasuke, soaking them further.

"Shisui!" they chorused.

He popped up and grinned cheekily.

"What have we learned today?" Shisui asked, pulling his shirt back on after an adventurous day.

"Don't every say you have the hang of the water," Naruto sighed.

"You're the undisputed master of splash fights," Sasuke agreed.

"I am, but we already knew that," Shisui said triumphantly. "I'll let it slide though. Sakura?"

"I learned how to do genjutsu, and one C-ranked one," she listed dutifully. "Also, I am very glad I learned water walking very quickly."

"Good lessons, everyone!" Shisui chirped, grinning.

**(A/N) He is the undisputed splash master. Forever and ever. Wave next week! **


	10. Chapter 9

**(A/N) I have had plans for Zabuza since I started this story. They are a bit gory tho, so, uh, if weak stomach, don't read from 'In his defence' to 'The fake hunter-nin'. **

"Can we have a C-rank?" Naruto asked for perhaps the fourth time this week.

"Are you done learning the water jutsu?" Shisui replied, sighing in exasperation.

"Yes!" Naruto insisted.

"Well enough to use it in a fight?" Shisui countered quickly. "Like if I told you to spar with Sasuke right now and he threw a fire jutsu at your face you'd be able to counter with that water jutsu?"

Naruto paused for a moment. "Maybe?"

"Sasuke!" Shisui called across the field, to where Sakura was trying to strangle his little cousin in a headlock. "Nice to see that Sakura's getting headlock practice in, but I need you to spar with Naruto for a moment! He thinks he has the water jutsu down!"

"I'll let him out as long as I get to fight you!" Sakura shouted back at him, still choking Sasuke.

"Sure!" Shisui chirped, bouncing over. "But I have to watch them too, so we'll have to be careful not to pop the shadow clone." He made a shadow clone, and Sakura released Sasuke, the latter choking and coughing on the ground while he tried to get some air back into his lungs.

"Cousin Shisui, she is a menace," Sasuke whimpered between coughs. "You are training a bloodthirsty menace."

Sakura had clearly heard him, if the cruel spark in her eyes was any indication. Oh yeah, his little cousin would be getting it later.

"We're not even close to bloodthirsty, little cousin," Shisui settled on, patting the back of his duckbutt. "Not even close. Now go be a good guppy and try and fry Naruto."

"Yeah yeah," Sasuke muttered into the dirt before rolling over and standing up, walking back to Naruto.

Shisui smiled after his cousin, absently catching Sakura's fist as she tried to punch him. "Have to be faster than that, Sakura."

She tried to kick him, but he caught that limb too. With two limbs caught, she was a bit stuck, so she tugged them out, and backflipped away.

"Doton: Tremor!" Sakura declared after a series of hand signs. Shisui stood his ground as it trembled underneath him for a few seconds before shunshining out of range of the jutsu. A minor D-rank earth jutsu, but he was proud of her for getting it down.

She walked up the tree he was hiding in, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. Shisui took the delay as an opportunity to grab her around the waist, tug her to the proper ground in the clearing, and put her in the same headlock Sasuke had been in not two minutes ago.

"Rude," she huffed, folding her arms.

"It's only fair," Shisui chirped, releasing her.

His clone popped, and his head filled with the memories. Yep, looks like Naruto was up for using it in a combat situation. Oh well, now that he was done with that, Sakura clearly had her doton jutsu down, and he knew that at least one of those fireballs Sasuke had spat at Naruto was twice the size of when they started, he had to take them to get a C-rank. How unfortunate. Well, not really, but still.

Better than D's at least. Still boring, but not as bad. And they're not catching that dang cat. One of these days, someone would accidentally incinerate it, and then they'd be off scott free. Well, close enough anyway.

"Whooo! We can get a C-rank now!" Naruto crowed, wrapping a cheerful arm around Sasuke.

"Yep, alright, we still have time, let's head to the mission office," Shisui agreed, sighing. He didn't like the mission office much, he had been alive and an active shinobi at the time of the massacre, so he wasn't exactly treated the best around the village. It was better then it had been years ago, his cheerful attitude and the constant ANBU watch meant people were more at ease with him and had warmed up.

Didn't mean it was easy to feel wary stares on him any time he entered anywhere. It did mean that Kakashi and Tenzo did a lot of the shopping, and Sakura fetched most of the missions.

So Sakura fetched a C-rank, their client being a man by the name of Tazuna.

He smelled like alcohol, which was the first thing Shisui noticed, which was kind of disgusting. Otherwise, he was a fairly normal, if rather anxious man.

The Demon Brothers attacking told him something was very wrong here. His students dispatched the two with ease, Sasuke frying them with a fire jutsu, and Sakura and Naruto wrapping them up in ninja wire quickly.

With a bit of interrogation of both their enemy and their client, Shisui decided this was at least A-rank. Of course, his kids wanted to go along with it. Of course.

Of course, after a bit of walking, it all went to disaster. An A-ranked missing nin, Zabuza Momochi.

In his defense, Shisui had let Zabuza put him in the water bubble. He was mostly close combat, and Zabuza was wonderful at dodging and getting far away, and now Zabuza couldn't escape! Shisui floated there, absentmindedly tugging down his shirt when it floated too far up. Couldn't let Zabuza see his gills, after all. Briefly, he wondered why Zabuza was just letting him float here, and not killing him. He glanced at his genin, then at Zabuza, then back to his genin.

Shisui flashed his second set of teeth at Naruto and Sasuke, then looked at Sakura. They got it, quickly turning her around, and pushing her to go on with the bridge builder, assuring her they were right behind her. Assured, Sakura continued down the path, Tazuna behind her.

Shisui nodded at them, flashing his second set of teeth a second time, this time at Zabuza, who looked surprised to see such sharp teeth in the mouth of a Konoha nin.

He wasted no time and went straight for the hand. Easy as he'd done with fish so many times, his teeth sliced through skin, flesh, tendons, then shearing through bone.

"Oops," Shisui muttered to himself as Zabuza jerked the stump of his arm, blood flowing from it, away. "Didn't mean to swallow that."

Zabuza stared at him in horror, and Shisui grinned with all his blood-stained sharp teeth, standing up on the surface of the water. "Didn't taste too bad though, but I prefer fish."

Zabuza's horrified expression grew, and Shisui watched in amusement as he glanced at Naruto and Sasuke, who didn't seem too phased. They'd seen Shisui eat fish before, they weren't bothered anymore.

Two silvery things flashed, and Shisui caught them on instinct. Senbon. Two of them, aimed at Zabuza.

Shisui pulled out his tanto and used his speed to knock Zabuza out easily, using his tanto hilt to deliver the blow. He then turned to see where the needles had come from. "Who are you?"

"A Kiri hunter-nin." Came the reply.

Shisui sniffed the air. "You don't smell like stale blood in the way shinobi usually do," he noted. "You haven't killed yet, as such, no, you can't take Zabuza's body, fake hunter-nin dude. No, I'm not about to pass out, or throw up, even if I could use some fish."

The hunter-nin looked extremely confused, hesitating.

"So, why are you here?"

"For Zabuza," he replied in a soft voice.

"Ah, figured," Shisui said. "You can't have him unless I know he's actually dead by my hand, I can't have him trying to go after my genin again."

The nin gave a skeptical look at Zabuza's stump arm, then at Shisui's mouth. "I highly doubt he would face you again. No matter how much we were hired for."

Shisui gave another bloodstained grin. "Come against me again, and I'll go for the throat next time."

The fake hunter-nin nodded quickly, shunshining over to Zabuza's prone body, picking it up, and disappearing into the trees.

Shisui stretched, yawning and showing off all of his bloodstained teeth. "Let's catch up with Sakura and Tazuna."

"We'll catch up now, you're gonna wash the blood off of your teeth," Naruto said firmly. "No scaring the client, remember?"

"Alright, alright, I'll catch up with you in a moment." Shisui said, sighing and nodding.

**(A/N) I am going to admit it now, I have had that scene with Zabuza planned since I started the story. For those who skipped, basically Shisui, er, bit off Zabuza's hand and accidentally swallowed it, haha. But yeah I've had that scene written forever. Also, it's Tenzo and Teuchi(the ramen chef)'s birthdays today!**


	11. Chapter 10

**(A/N) For those wondering, yes Haku and Zabuza decided it was not worth trying to deal with team 7 and their insane sensei. Not while Zabuza was missing a hand. So they go poof.**

They arrived in late afternoon, after lunch, but before dinner.

"Oh, Father, you didn't!" Was the first thing out of who Shisui assumed was Tazuna's daughter's mouth.

"And you are?" Shisui asked, just to check.

"Oh! I apologize for my lack of manners! I'm Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter." She moved aside, gesturing inside. "Please, come in."

The house was fairly small, but homey and cute. Shisui liked it. "I hope we won't burden you too much. Shisui Uchiha, by the way. These are my genin, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. Yes we're related."

Tsunami giggled. "I had guessed from the same last names. We have an empty room upstairs, if you don't mind sharing."

"We'll be fine," Shisui agreed, starting to herd his genin in that direction. "Which room?"

"Third on the left," Tsunami said quickly. "The one before it is a bathroom."

"Thanks!" Shisui chirped, pushing his students up the stairs.

"We can walk on our own," Sasuke said grumpily. Shisui patted his head.

"Sure you can, you just aren't going fast enough. Go faster." Shisui pushed him again, finding the door Tsunami had said, and opening it. "Move."

Sasuke stopped. "Is this because we're next to the ocean?"

Shisui shoved him into the doorframe and entered the room to claim next to the window. He wasn't taking any chances after Haku and Zabuza, hence his position next to the window. He'd be the first to be stabbed if anyone entered. Assuming they could stab him at all, which was highly unlikely. He was too fast for that.

Sasuke sulkily set up his sleeping back anyway, plopping down on it annoyedly afterwards.

"Who wants to learn a water jutsu?" Shisui asked, clapping his hands together cheerfully.

Sakura raised her hand timidly. Naruto cheerfully waved his arm, and Sasuke glared at Shisui, clearly still sulking.

"Come on then!" Shisui cheered, herding the two listening genin out of the door. "Sasuke, you can watch Tsunami and Tazuna I guess if you don't want to come with! Don't get surprised when a small angry child comes, he'd probably related to one or both of them."

Sasuke stared at him for a moment. "If he's related to one, he's going to be related to the other."

"Good point," Shisui agreed, nodding sagely. He knew that of course, he was an Uchiha, he could understand familial lines thank you very much.

"Are we going?" Sakura asked, deceptively sweet.

"Of course!" Shisui cheered, pushing them out of the door again.

"Hey Sakura, since we're sleeping in the same room, I think it's only fair I tell you before you wake up and try to stab me in the middle of the night."

Naruto snickered at him, and Shisui pouted at him.

"What is it Shisui-sensei?" Sakura asked patiently.

Naruto smirked, and Shisui backed away from him. "What are you doing, no, stop, don't come closeerrr!" His voice trailed off as Naruto shoved him off the side of the bridge.

"Naruto!" Sakura snapped.

"He's fine," Naruto replied easily, leaning on the side of the bridge.

"Rude!" Shisui shouted from down below. Sakura looked down, and shrieked. That wasn't Shisui! It was a weird black creature in his place!

"See, she isn't stabbing you!" Naruto shouted down.

"She still screamed!" The creature yelled in Shisui's voice. Sakura shrieked again.

"Calm down Sakura, it's Shisui!" Naruto said, gesturing vaguely at the creature, who waved cheerfully, black scales retreating to show pale skin.

Sakura blinked down at him. "Ah."

"Yeah she's fine," Shisui said, waving an arm, the black scales reappearing.

Sakura thought she was far from fine, and would require a better explanation later then 'her sensei was a weird black fish creature sometimes.'

"Sakura, don't hit the builders of the bridge," Shisui said, mildly exasperated as a water bullet splashed far too close to a builder for comfort.

"I'm trying!" Sakura protested, doing the signs for another go. "But it keeps going in the wrong direction."

"Try focusing on it more," Shisui suggested, shrugging.

"Shisui-sensei!" Sakura sighed. "That doesn't help at all!"

"Yeah well aim it back at that end of the bridge if you will, there are bandits down that way. Naruto, please clear off the builders."

"On it!" Naruto chirped, making some shadow clones and starting to move the builders off of the bridge and away from the misty end of the bridge. There was either a random mist ninja, or the mist was completely natural and just coincidental. Shisui wasn't sure which one he'd prefer. Either would probably be fine.

"A pity Sasuke chose not to come along again," Shisui sighed. "On second thought maybe it's good, there may be someone going for Inari and Tsunami."

"He'll be fine!" Naruto said, grinning. "How many?"

Shisui frowned at the mist. His sensing wasn't getting very much, given they weren't trained shinobi. "Somewhere around 30 maybe? Hard to say."

Sakura gulped, and Shisui was reminded she hadn't actually seen him fight yet. She'd be fine after she did. Although maybe she should look away, killing people tended to involve blood.

"Ah well, let's attack!" Shisui said cheerily. "Sakura, feel like actually aiming that jutsu at someone?"

"Not particularly," Sakura admitted faintly.

"You'll survive!" Shisui decided, bumping her. "Try it!"

Sakura raised shaking hands, and Shisui pulled out a kunai, throwing it to block a clumsily shot arrow. "Geez, they have bad aim." **(Storm trooper aim, lol)**

"Bad aim indeed!" Naruto chirped as Sakura shot her jutsu, four thugs grunting as the water hit them.

"Good job!" Shisui praised, ruffling her hair. "You can sit the murdering out if you want."

Sakura nodded faintly. "I think I will this time."

"She'll need a tolerance for that."

"Maybe later."

**(A/N) I'm just goin back to Konoha next time. Chuunin exams here we come! **


	12. Chapter 11

**(A/N) Chuunin Exams! **

"I've called you here today because the Chuunin Exams begin next month," the Hokage said, scanning the crowd.

Shisui knew that already, he'd know it was time for the chuunin exams, and his kittens were eligible for being entered. They'd finished a C-rank mission successfully, despite the unforeseen complications. It'd probably be a good learning experience for them. Get their toes wet while it's in Konoha. If they passed, they passed, if they didn't, well, there was always next time. Or a field promotion, but since this wasn't war, that was highly unlikely to happen.

"Shisui Uchiha, Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuuhi, do any of you nominate your genin for the chuunin exams?" The Hokage asked.

Shisui was first in line. He raised his hand. "I, Shisui Uchiha, nominate my genin, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki for the Chuunin Exams."

Uh oh, Iruka didn't look happy. Well, he couldn't do anything about it until Kurenai and Asuma either did or didn't nominate their genin.

They did, and Iruka looked even less happy. Shisui took it upon himself to speak first. "For the record, I nominated my genin because I believe that even if they aren't quite ready, which they should be, this would be a valuable learning experience for them. A way to get their toes wet in a more friendly environment than another village."

Iruka looked only a little bit pacified, so Shisui continued. "It will also give them a sense of where they stand on the power scale, and tell them far better than I ever could, what they need to work on." And just maybe, in Sakura's case, she'd be woken up to the realities of shinobi life. Shisui was having difficulty working out how to manage that without severely injuring either Sasuke or Naruto, or endangering her without the boys to save her. He hoped the third round, should his genin make it that far, allow her to be woken up without ending up with someone dead.

Iruka eyed him for a moment longer, but nodded, stepping back without having said anything. Well, that was one thing solved.

"Well said, Shisui," the Hokage agreed. "Maito Gai? I believe your students did not take the exam last year."

"I, Maito Gai, nominate my genin, Tenten, Rock Lee, and Neji Hyuuga for the Chuunin Exams!"

Shisui blinked away the spots in his vision from the sunlight reflecting off the man's grin. He never did figure out how he managed to get Kakashi to tolerate him, but who was he to judge.

"These Chuunin Exams will be fun," Kakashi muttered under his breath.

Shisui hummed. They would indeed. Especially with three Rookie teams participating, something that rarely happened. Oh heck they'd probably have preliminaries. Having rookies usually coincided with a preliminary round. Who knew why, but it did. Maybe it was the extra people.

Now he just had to tell his team!

"Shisui-sensei, you're late," Naruto sounded very accusatory indeed. He even had his hands on his hips, how cute. "Don't tell me you're picking up on Kakashi's habits."

Shisui held in a snicker because Naruto was doing a very impressive imitation of what Mikoto said every time anyone was late to anything. "Nope, not doing that. I promise I have a very good reason for being late."

"Was it the meeting the Hokage called?" Sasuke guessed, gesturing at the sky. "I saw the hawk."

"Bingo!" Shisui said, holding up the slips he'd grabbed. "The Chuunin Exams begin soon, and guess what these are…"

"Tickets?" Sakura asked, confused.

"No!" Sasuke said quickly, glaring at her. His glare was quickly turned on Shisui. "Right?"

"Nope!" Shisui agreed, dangling the papers in front of their faces.

"Did you say we could go?" Naruto asked, grabbing at them. Shisui moved them out of the way.

"Yep!" He replied cheerfully. "I nominated you three for the Chuunin Exams. As they're held here in Konoha, I figured it'd be a good way for you three to get your own sense for what you need to work on. I can say things again and again, but if you don't think you need to work on them, you won't ever get it." His gaze lingered on Sakura before moving on.

Naruto made another grab for the papers, and Shisui let him grab one, handing the other two to Sakura and Sasuke. "Sign these and be at the Academy in a few days, it has the date and time on it. Don't be late."

"We aren't Kakashi," Sasuke said. "We can be on time to things."

Shisui gasped. "Really? You can?" He put his hand on his chest in mock amazement. "Amazing!"

His efforts were rewarded by the rolling of eyes from all three genin.

He, of course was confined to the jounin lounge while the first exam was happening, because even if he'd been tapped to monitor the forest and pick up dying or dead genin along with his murder, he still had to wait while the genin finished the first exam before that happened.

"I'm just glad my dogs weren't called to roam the forest looking for dead bodies," Kakashi said, meticulously peeling an orange. "They hate that."

"You haven't been tapped to do that since they realized my murder was better at finding all of them and being more subtle then your dogs," Shisui replied, stealing the orange from Kakashi's hands as he finished peeling.

"Hey," Kakashi said, putting up barely a token protest.

"You hate oranges," Shisui reminded him, biting into the orange like an apple.

Kakashi sighed, but didn't refute it, grabbing another orange to peel.

"If you hate them why do you keep peeling them?" The sand jounin nearby asked, looking rather confused.

"Because it's something to do," Kakashi replied, peeling off a piece of the skin.

"Shisui why are you eating the orange like that?" Kurenai asked, sounding both long suffering and amused.

He paused halfway through biting into the orange again. "Li' wha'?"

Asuma snorted. "Like you're eating an apple. That is not how you eat oranges."

Shisui blinked at him. "It isn't?"

"It never was," Kurenai told him.

"Since when," Shisui asked accusingly. "Who's to say I'm not eating it properly?"

"Everyone," Genma called from where ye was previously chatting with Raido. "You are the only person I know who eats oranges like that."

"Seriously?" Shisui said, biting into the orange again. He chewed thoughtfully. "Then how do you eat an orange?"

Kurenai sighed, grabbing the peeled orange from Kakashi's hands. He sighed too, grabbing another one. "Like this." She dug her fingers into the top of the orange, pulling it apart. She pulled off one of the pieces, popping it into her mouth.

Shisui blinked, confused. "Huh. Weird. I'll remember to try that next time."

"If I can finish peeling an orange," Kakashi said, glaring significantly at Shisui and Kurenai. "You can use your newfound knowledge and give it to your crows."

"Oh they'll probably like that. They prefer fruit to cat treats usually," Shisui agreed.

An ANBU appeared, nodding to Shisui, then disappearing again.

"Well look at that, there's my cue." Shisui said, standing up and finishing off the orange.

Kakashi threw the orange at his head. "For the birds."

Shisui caught it easily. "Thanks. See you guys! I have dead bodies and injured children to find. Fun."

"Break a leg!" Gai shouted enthusiastically.

"Don't intend to, but thanks," Shisui agreed, shunshining away.

**(A/N) The idea of someone eating an orange like it's an apple is just the strangest thing to me. Then again, I'm the kind of person who has one way to eat things and doesn't ever differ from that. *shrugs* Oh well. **


	13. Chapter 12

(A/N) Hello! This is, somewhat unfortunately, the final update before November begins! November is NanoWrimo, and as such, I will not be posting during then. But here you go! The second round! It's the Forest of Death, and he's finding all the half dead genin, so… blood warning.

Shisui leaped into the forest, the murder flanking him, then separating off, spreading across the entire forest. They'd report back if they found anything, and Shisui would head there to either clean up, or shunshin the injured genin to the tower where they'd get medical treatment and be out of the exam.

He passed by an unconscious genin team and waved to Iruka, who'd been the one to do it. Iruka waved back, then went back to his job of taking care of any idiots who tried to open the scrolls early.

One of his murder approached him, and he turned to follow her instead.

She lead him to a pair of ame genin, and what Shisui assumed was the third one splattered around the clearing. The remaining two were mostly uninjured, so Shisui hopped down, tossing his crow a treat from his treat pouch.

Both genin screeched as he landed, huddling together.

"Yo!" He settled on, waving. "I'm Shisui Uchiha, and you have been disqualified from the chuunin exams." He pulled out the paper with the list of genin he had. "Names?"

They gave them, he found them on the paper, and crossed them off. He then put away the paper and Shunshined over, picking both of them up and tucking them under his arms.

"Hey!" They both squawked in unison.

"Don't be babies, I'm way faster than both of you together." Shisui snickered as they both clutched at his arms. "Don't worry! I can hold on plenty tight!"

The journy to the tower usually took about a minute, Shisui was just kind of fast like that, but this time they had to stop in the middle for one of them to empty his stomach.

Shisui had never personally had issues with motion sickness, not even when he was learning to use Shunshin the way he did, which he was grateful for. Motion sickness looked like it sucked.

In the end they made it to the tower, and the two not dead genin went to the medical ward. They'd be treated for any injuries, then sent on their way. Now Shisui had to hop back into the forest and look for more dead or half dead genin.

He stumbled across a team of genin being attacked by a massive herd of the carivorus deer the Nara always let loose in the forest for the chuunin exams. He'd drive the deer off after the genin were either dead, or very close to it. For now, he just watched the poor Suna team who had no clue how to deal with carnivorous deer get torn to pieces.

After one had lost an arm and another was almost down a leg, he hopped down and grabbed some of the jerky he carried for his crows, dangling it at them. They were trained to listen to anyone with the Nara jerky, so he chucked the piece off into the forest, getting them to chase after it.

He used his very limited knowledge of medical stuff to cauterize both wounds enough they wouldn't die as he transported them to the tower. Two under his arms, the third clinging to his back and soaking his shirt in blood from their chest wound, he shunshined to the tower. They were dropped off in the medical wing, Shisui swapped out his shirt, and the team was crossed off Shisui's paper.

Two crows were trying to get him to follow them, so he made a shadow clone to follow one, and followed the one that was insisting on it being the real him. By which he meant he was trying to peck the shadow clone. Taka always was a brat.

He followed Taka anyway, the bird flying oddly frantically.

He did not, in fact, come across a set of half-dead or dead genin. He found his own team, fighting what did not look like a genin.

Taka chirped at him, dancing around frantically. Shisui gave the bird an odd look. "What are you even trying to say?"

Taka crowed again, finally scratching out the kanji for 'snake' on the branch beneath him.

Shisui wondered if now was a good time to try and brain himself on a branch. "Is that Orochimaru?"

Taka nodded quickly.

Shisui sighed, but tossed Taka a treat, and shunshined down into the clearing, intercepting a barrage of kunai with his tanto. "Kids, run!"

"Shisui-sensei?" They all chorused.

"Get out of here," Shisui hissed again. "This is no genin, and I don't want you fighting him. This is Orochimaru, the snake sannin. Get out and get to the tower. Tell the ANBU there where I am. Take Taka with you."

Taka crowed loudly to tell them where he was, and the genin raced for him.

Shisui intercepted Orochimaru again. "No. These are my genin. You can't have them."

Orochimaru made a hissing noise. "The defective Uchiha. You are of no use to me without your sharingan."

"I am still plenty skilled, even without it, to take you down," Shisui snarled, his sharp set of teeth sliding down over his normal ones as he bared them at Orochimaru.

"We'll see about that," Orochimaru sneered dismissively.

Shisui fell into a stance, tanto held at the ready. "You couldn't catch me if you tried." He made the half ram seal he hadn't needed for years, and shunshined forward, aiming for Orochimaru.

The man blocked with a kunai, throwing Shisui backward.

He flipped to recover, landing neatly on his feet. "That all you got?" Shisui taunted, making a half horse sign, then blowing out a massive fireball.

Orochimaru seemed to walk straight through it, although Shisui was fairly sure he'd gone around the fireball.

He was really at a disadvantage here, he was a powerful shinobi, yes, and a very good one at that, but right now, he didn't have a Sharingan, didn't have what was probably his most powerful weapon. Water.

"Huh?" A confused voice sounded behind him, and he half twisted to find Asuma's team, the Ino-Shika-Cho combo, standing there, extremely confused.

"Leave!" Shisui shouted at them. "Go to the tower as quickly as you can and get backup!"

He intercepted a shot at them from Orochimaru. "GO!" he roared at them, flashing his sharp teeth for extra measure. They had to get out, he couldn't afford to continue defending them while trying to fight off Orochimaru. He could only do so much.

After another blocked attack at the kids from Orochimaru, his vision sharpened in a way vividly familiar to him. His sharingan? He could still use it?

"You'll do," Orochimaru hissed, clearly not at all pleased. "Swamp of the Underworld!"

A combination of the shock of that jutsu, famously only ever used by Jiraiya, and his sharingan apparently awakening for a second time, meant Shisui ended up very stuck in the swamp. It was too thick to swim through, so he didn't bother shifting. Also the way Orochimaru was eyeing him made him think twice about ever doing that in front of Orochimaru.

The snake sannin's neck elongated, his head coming down and biting down hard on Shisui's shoulder. His arms stuck in the muck, Shisui couldn't stop him.

(A/N) Yes, I am leaving you there. For a month. Month and a half I guess. Sorry not sorry. Betcha didn't see that one coming!


	14. Chapter 13

**(A/N) Hi. Miss me? ...I have nothing to say for myself after last chapter, lol.**

The sannin's head retreated, his tongue just a bit slower than the rest of his head. Head slightly muddled from the pain of something trying to force its way into his chakra system, Shisui acted on instinct, and lashed out with his teeth. As with Zabuza's hand, it went down his throat almost immediately.

Shisui also regretted it almost immediately. It tasted horrible. Worse then the time he'd tripped and landed face down while on a sewer mission. Shisui made a promise to himself that he was going to wash his own mouth out with soap, because that tasted horrible, and there was no way soap would taste worse. At least the soap would be clean.

Orochimaru looked like a cross between in pain, angry, horrified, and very confused. It was an almost amusing mix, and Shisui might have laughed if he didn't want to throw up from the taste of his mouth and didn't fear Orochimaru's response if he did laugh. Unfortunately, he couldn't really throw up for some reason, he'd always had a strong stomach before, but this was ridiculous because he was starting to wonder if he was physically incapable of throwing up. But this was neither the time nor the place to consider that.

Orochimaru shot him one last weird look, then disappeared, making an escape Shisui was in too much pain to track. So now he was stuck up to his chest in swamp muck, had gotten some sort of weird bite from Orochimaru, which honestly worried him, had no one in sight, the Ino-Shika-Cho having had enough sense to leave, and was in no small amount of pain from said bite.

An ANBU squad got there a moment later, and Shisui was not particularly pleased to see it was Tenzo in the lead because he was absolutely getting teased for ending up in this position later.

And indeed, there were muffled snickers coming from the squad.

"Could someone get me out?" Shisui asked plaintively.

Tenzo made the snake symbol, branches swooping down to pull him out of the muck. So now Shisui was dangling two feet off the ground and covered in muck. The branches placed him down next to a tree, and Shisui leaned against it, mentally attempting to metaphorically beat back his pain with a broomstick. It wasn't working.

"Can someone get Kakashi?" Shisui asked, hoping his voice wasn't too strained. "I could use a bar of new soap and a pair of dry clothes too."

Tenzo nodded to one of the ANBU, and they Shunshined away.

"Also I need you to report to the Hokage that I was just attacked by Orochimaru," Shisui added, almost as an afterthought. "That's kind of important. I'll get back to the tower myself, go do that."

Tenzo nodded to him, then to his team, and they all flickered away.

Shisui let out a strained breath, then held up a half ram, and shunshined for the tower.

He barely made it, dry retching, although nothing came up. His chakra wasn't responding right, was trying to fight itself and whatever thing Orochimaru had done to his shoulder. He needed a medic. And Kakashi. And some water because he also needed Kushina. They had to take a look at whatever was on his shoulder, and possibly seal it up.

He stumbled into the side door that genin couldn't access, and sat down to wait for whatever came first, Kakashi, or the soap and dry clothing. Because he did not like the swamp muck currently covering most of him. At least it wasn't in his hair. He had a feeling it'd be a nightmare to wash out of his hair.

Kakashi ended up getting there first, and thankfully with a new bar of soap and clean clothes.

Shisui made grabby hands at them, too tired for this.

Kakashi pulled him up by his upper arm, steering him to the bathroom, then handing them to him. "I'll be right outside when you're done."

Shisui nodded gratefully to him, then proceeded to wash his own mouth out with soap, (He was right, it did taste better than Orochimaru's tongue had), and switch clothing. He rinsed the areas of himself covered in the swamp muck best he could, which wasn't all that great. He was still pretty much a mess.

He opened the door feeling much better.

"What did you need the soap for anyway?" Kakashi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll tell you in a bit. I need to speak with Kushina." Shisui would absolutely be teased for his choice to wash his mouth out with soap, but oh well, it had worked, and now his mouth tasted like orange scented soap. Which was better than what it had tasted like.

Kakashi sighed, but pushed him back into the bathroom where they'd have at least a bit of privacy, and turned on the faucet, using his hands to splash a puddle onto the floor. He summoned Pakkun, who then poofed away to get Kushina, who appeared a bit later, rising from the puddle.

"So, why'd ya need me?" Kushina asked as soon as she'd finished forming. "What happened?"

Shisui groaned, but pulled down the collar of his shirt to show where Orochimaru had bitten him. "I got bit."

"Don't you need a medic for that?" Kushina asked skeptically.

"By Orochimaru," Shisui finished quickly. "Something's wrong there."

Kakashi finished inspecting it. "It looks like Anko's curse mark. There are differences, but it's very similar. We should seal it, just in case."

"So that's why you called me," Kushina said, pointing at him.

Shisui nodded tiredly. "You're a seal master, you should be able to seal it off, if not remove it. Removing it would be great, but do whatever."

"How'd you run into Orochimaru?" Kakashi asked, frowning.

"He was attacking my team. Taka led me to him. I intercepted and told them to go to the tower to get an ANBU squad for backup. They went, and so I fought him for a long while. Asuma's team showed up for a bit, I awakened my sharingan, he used that Swamp Jutsu Jiraiya is somewhat known for but on a smaller scale, then bit me." Shisui huffed quietly. "And then I bit off the end of his tongue."

Kakashi choked on air and Kushina started laughing.

"Don't laugh at me!" Shisui squawked plaintively. "It tasted gross! Worse then the time I tripped while on a sewer mission!"

"Is that why you needed the soap?" Kakashi sounded like he didn't actually want to know the answer.

"Yes," Shisui replied immediately. "That is why I needed the soap."

Kushina laughed even harder, falling over and half dissolving while she laughed.

"This isn't funny!" Shisui squawked. "Can you please seal this thing while I take a well needed nap?"

Kushina reformed after a long moment, giggles still happening every once in a while. "Right, yep, we can do that. Kakashi, you have a water bottle? We should probably find an empty room where we actually won't be disturbed."

Kakashi nodded, pulling out a water bottle. He emptied it into a sink, and Kushina moved the water from the ground into it, dissolving as she went. Kakashi filled up the bottle the rest of the way, and they went to find a good room.

Once they did find a good room, Shisui pulled off his shirt, knowing full well, that with the seal on his shoulder, his torso and back would be used for seal matrixes. He plopped down in the middle of the room, sitting cross legged, and passed out. He was just tired enough to sleep sitting upright.

When he woke again, it was to Kakashi shaking his shoulder. "Oi, morning sunshine. Your kids are doing their preliminary fights, the Hokage needs you there. Your shoulder has been sealed up best me and Kushina can manage, so it'll do. She still advises you not use chakra for at least the next two days."

Shisui nodded, yawning. "I'll try and remember that. Thanks for waking me up."

"Your kids are concerned, so have fun fielding their questions." With that cheery comment, Kakashi disappeared in a whirl of leaves, the dramatic bastard. Shisui resigned himself to walking everywhere like a civvie, and started walking towards where the preliminary rounds were always held.

He walked in via the ceiling, using the convenient rafters so he wasn't using chakra. He dropped down next to two kids of his team, Sasuke, the missing one, was down in the center fighting a guy with a chakra draining jutsu.

Sakura squeaked as soon as she noticed he'd dropped down beside them. "Shisui-sensei!"

"Shisui!" Naruto crowed once he'd realized Shisui was there as well, hugging him. "We left you to fight him, then didn't see you, and we were so scared!"

"I'm fine, trust me," Shisui reassured them. "I didn't get any injuries a bit of time resting couldn't fix. Mostly just a bit of exhaustion and some scrapes." And two puncture wounds and a seal on his shoulder. But that was also fixed by rest. Kind of. Rest and Kushina and Kakashi's help.

Sasuke finished his fight soon after, victorious, of course. For all that the genin sucked chakra, the only place the jutsu did that, was on his hands. Avoid the hands and you're good.

Naruto didn't have any issues either, fighting off Kiba and his little dog easily enough.

Sakura seemed to have some history with her opponent, given the amount of dramatic talking and looks they were exchanging. But all in all, his team passed, and he was proud of them. Now he just had to not die while training them for the finals. Easier said than done, especially with the no chakra handicap on for the time being. Oh well, he'd rope Aunt Mikoto into helping, maybe even 'convince' (read, threaten) Kakashi and Tenzo into helping too.

**(A/N) And here we go! I completed last chapter, and this one, in quick succession because I really wanted to write the scene with him telling Kakashi and Kushina about the need for washing his own mouth out with soap. Because I found that irrationally amusing. **

**So, Greetings. It is that time. I have loads of empty update spots, and here's the poll to vote! Copy paste into your own browsers. /27wYJyJei3QmmfLU8**


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